Join us behind-the-scenes at the Vancouver Aquarium in our original Wet Lab for a unique hands-on experience!

In this program, your students will:

Handle live animals that live in BC waters, organized by a variety of animal phyla

Explore local marine biodiversity and the different characteristics used to classify marine life

Understand how the classification system is used to increase our knowledge of marine life and why thisis important to the survival of all living things!

Our Wet Lab programs are a great way to engage your group, inspire curiosity and instill a sense of respect for all ocean life and its environment! This is a unique hands-on experience where your students will interact with and learn about live tidal pool sea animals from local B.C. waters and gain a first-hand insight into the inner workings of intertidal marine life. Students will be broken into groups to be led through exhibit stations with our knowledgeable staff and docents. Through an inquiry approach, students will be encouraged to explore the physical traits and behaviors we use to identify and group these animals. Through conversation, students will consider the impacts that their study of classification, as well as their own daily habits, have on these organisms.

All organisms have characteristics that define them as living and interdependent. Life can be organized in a functional and structural hierarchy ranging from cells to the biosphere (Biology: Big Ideas)

Living things are interdependent (Biology: Big Ideas)

Living things are diverse and evolve over time. (Biology: Big Ideas)

The survival of all living things on Earth is dependent on biodiversity. (Environmental Science: Big Ideas)

Experience and interpret the local environment (Biology: Curricular Competencies)

Use knowledge of scientific concepts to draw conclusions that are consistent with evidence(Biology: Curricular Competencies)

Analyze the impact of human activity on ecosystems, and assess the effectiveness of selected initiatives related to environmental sustainability (Environmental Science: Curricular Competencies)

Analyze how our thinking, choices, and behaviours affect ecosystems, now and in the future (Environmental Science: Curricular Competencies)

Infer the effects of natural phenomena and human activities that either contribute to or challenge an ecologically sustainable environment (Environmental Science: Curricular Competencies)

Features and structure of living things: respiration, reproduction, growth, nutrient intake (Biology: Content)

How animals shape their physical environment (Biology: Content)

Healthy and sustainable ecosystems: ecosystem functions and services including benefits and limits of biodiversity, humans as agents of positive change on systems including conservation, restoration, and protection of ecosystems, responsible personal and community actions, responsible uses of technologies and alternative resources (Environmental Science: Content)

Grade 12

Everyone has the ability to develop sustainable practices that impact a system, a community, and themselves. (Environmental Science: Big Ideas)

Make observations aimed at identifying their own questions, including increasingly abstract ones, about the natural world (Environmental Science: Curricular Competencies)

Experience and interpret the local environment (Environmental Science: Curricular Competencies)

Infer the effects of natural phenomena and human activities that either contribute to or challenge an ecologically sustainable environment(Environmental Science: Curricular Competencies)